By coincidence, on the same day I wrote about death and taxes in my post Uncertainty, I happened upon this in Atlas Shrugged. Please note 12 years of tax returns. Do you suppose that George Romney got the idea from Ayn Rand? Atlas Strugged was published in 1957 and George ran for the GOP nomination in 1968.

This is part of a conversation between the pirate Ragnar Danneskjold and Hank Rearden when Danneskjold attempts to refund a portion of Rearden’s income tax in gold.

“‘What is that?’
‘Your income tax, Mr. Rearden.’‘What?’
‘Your income tax for the last twelve years.’
‘You intend to refund that?’
‘In full and in gold, Mr. Rearden
….
“‘The looters are not the only ones who have kept records on you, Mr. Rearden. So have I. I have, in my files, copies of all your income tax returns for the last twelve years, as well as the returns of all my other clients. …'”

Now if he just had access to Mitt‘s returns. According to Ayn Rand, looters are people like government officials who do not produce any goods, but live on tax revenue or other people’s work.